I’m a learning and development consultant—offering team building, strategic planning, vision setting and leadership training and coaching for other people and organizations.

If there’s one thing being a business owner has taught me, it’s that I need to take charge of my own learning and development. Several months ago, I signed up for a three-day, coaching course in January that will expand my thinking, enhance my interpersonal skills and give me the opportunity to network with other professionals--even though it’s coming out of my profits and the expense initially felt steep and made me mildly uncomfortable. 

Don’t wait for someone else to dictate your professional learning—change it up in the new year and boldly take charge of it yourself. When was the last time you assessed your own professional/personal developmental needs and took classes beyond those required by your organization? If you do it regularly, kudos to you! If not, why not start now?

You probably don’t hesitate to sign up for what you want or need in the personal development arena—whether it’s a salsa class, a new language app, a local CPR class or participation in a marathon. And, in the business world you probably don’t hesitate to sign up for technical training courses you need. So, why do we hesitate to sign up for the leadership, emotional intelligence or professional development experiences we need? Here are some real (or imagined) obstacles you might need to tackle:

Real (or Imagined) Obstacles:

Worrying about what others will think: Signing up for leadership or emotional intelligence courses can make us feel vulnerable--like we are advertising our ‘deficiencies’. But, in reality, people usually respect those who work to improve themselves. If you’re a leader, continuously improving yourself is simply being a great role model for those you lead. Plus, most people we work with are already well aware of our strengths and improvement areas, so addressing them is a good thing. No stigma.

Not knowing what you need: If you haven’t made the time to figure out how you could improve yourself, do it now. Ask a friend, family member, coworker or significant other. Or, take a needs assessment to discover where you could enhance your emotional intelligence or leadership skills. Maybe it’s hiring a coach/business confidant to strategize with, or taking an online or face-to-face leadership course.

Permission for Time and/or Resources: Once you’ve figured out what development you need, consider asking your company to sponsor it. Be bold! They should be impressed that you’ve examined your needs and have plotted a course to meet them. But, if you’re uncomfortable asking or if they can’t provide the time or resources you need, it may be worth it to provide your own time and resources to make it happen. Or, come up with another resource-light, alternative. For example, if you can’t make it to a leadership class, start a leadership book club at lunch.

Once you’re convinced of what you need, and have the necessary time and resources, book it right away. You won’t regret taking charge of your own learning and development! 
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Email colettejoyce7@gmail.com or call 805.305.5719 to discuss ways Colette can provide coaching, and leadership development and training services for you or your organization.   

Whether you’re an entrepreneur, first-line supervisor, CEO, project manager or non-profit board member, you’re likely facing decisions about what leadership, communication or emotional intelligence classes or coaching opportunities you should take or offer to your employees.

It’s important to choose wisely. I believe great leadership is the single biggest predictor of an organization’s success.  Great leaders inspire people and teams to live and work to their fullest, engage, contribute their talents and reach their dreams. Great leaders remove obstacles, improve systems and create conditions which make it easier for people to succeed. They believe in and invest in their employees. An organizational effectiveness research project undertaken by the Gallup Organization found that the front-line manager is the key to attracting and retaining talented employees.  So, leaders must be carefully selected and intentionally developed.

But, budgets are often tight and only so much time and money can be allotted to training.  In larger organizations, the learning department may recommend the leadership model and courses for employees, including the topics, and delivery mode (way of presenting content--such as instructor-led, hands-on, discussions, simulations or e-Learning.) You and your employees may be able to supplement that training or even request coaching from an internal or external coach.  In other companies, especially where people or budgets are stretched thin, employees may take a few online courses that are recommended through google searches or advertisements, or possibly skip training altogether.  

A quick search of e-Learning and more traditional training websites reveals an ongoing ‘either/or’ debate of sorts; comparing and critiquing instructor-led versus e-Learning delivery modes. Rather than entering the debate, I’d recommend establishing desired outcomes/effectiveness measurements and then utilizing a blended learning approach to fulfill the learning objectives:

Establish Desired Outcomes/Effectiveness Measurements:
1.     Be clear on your desired outcomes before making a commitment to use your (or your company’s) time and money on anything--whether it’s a marketing campaign, sales venture, new product development, team project or a training course.  

2.     To set desired outcomes, analyze your/your team’s learning objectives, areas for improvement and challenges you’ll be facing, and determine which training topics and delivery modes best fit those needs. Do you need to increase your self-awareness and emotional intelligence, learn to delegate more efficiently or do a better job of performance management? Do you need to strengthen your team’s trust levels, implement a process improvement or prepare for a possible industry disruption? Would you or your employees like to strengthen communication, public speaking or conflict management skills?  

3.     Determine in advance how you will measure training effectiveness; then measure it after training completion. Factor those results into your choices during the next training selection cycle.  Cost is an important component to measure, but meeting the desired outcomes is likely even more important for your company’s bottom line. Even a small amount of money spent on a training venture is too much if you didn’t achieve your desired outcomes.   

Choose a Balanced, Blended Learning Approach:
1)     Determine which delivery methods will best help you meet your desired outcomes and learning objectives. For instance, if you’d like to improve communication or networking skills, it makes sense to take a face-to-face, instructor-led course where role-playing and practicing are included, and where you have an opportunity to meet with your cohorts. If you need education around a certain leadership theory, it might work well to take a few e-Learning courses, observe how leaders around you utilize those principles and then try them out yourself in the field. You could follow up with a traditional classroom course later.    
 
2)     Use a blended learning approach. As stated in a Training Today’s article, “Blended learning is a commonsense concept that results in great learning success. The blended learning approach is simply acknowledging that one size doesn’t fit all when it comes to training. In a nutshell, blended learning means using more than one training method to train on one subject.” Answering the questions presented in the article may provide helpful direction.   

3)     Consider your personality strengths and training preferences, and ensure you strike a balance in the types of training you take.  Step out of your comfort zone and don’t allow yourself to gravitate to only one type of training each time. If you’ve mainly attended face-to-face training sessions, consider taking webinars and e-Learning to stay abreast of technology, and benefit from a different training style. If you’ve primarily taken virtual classes, step out and schedule one-on-one leadership coaching sessions or take an instructor-led course.

4)     Get creative about how you fulfill your learning objectives. Entertain other types of training solutions such as on-the-job learning, coaching, rotational training, job shadowing, discussions, simulations or book clubs.

5)     Select well-designed, high-caliber training courses and ensure the facilitators, instructors or coaches come highly-recommended and have the experience you need.  Check websites, ask questions, get referrals.
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Great leaders are critical to an organization’s success, and leaders can sharpen their emotional intelligence, communication and leadership skills through training and one-on-one coaching. Make 2018 a great year:  Keep leadership training outcome-driven, balanced and blended.​

Most of us have been there. You’re a conscientious person. You’ve worked hard, you’ve practiced, you’ve stepped out in creativity or pushed yourself beyond your comfort zone, and now, at last, you’ve completed the project, wrapped up the school semester or finished the big soccer game. Before you can take a deep breath, your supervisor or coach is critiquing you or even inviting critiques from your team.

You have your own ideas about what went well and what could have been improved… but that stage was skipped and the feedback is rolling in.  You try to listen, but it’s hard to stay tuned in and ‘embrace’ the feedback.

Why is that?  Feedback is easier to accept from others once you’ve had a chance to evaluate yourself. It’s just human nature.  

What’s the big deal about embracing feedback? If a person doesn’t accept feedback, they won’t use it-- which negates the goal of feedback in the first place--improvement.

Thankfully, as a supervisor or coach, you can make feedback easier to absorb and apply, which also has a huge impact on improving your business results.   From my observations, one of the most effective techniques for ensuring feedback will be internalized and applied is to ensure people have an opportunity to critique themselves first. This works well in a small, applied training environment or in day-to-day work situations. After your employee tries a new skill, follow up with him, and before sharing your feedback, let him do his own self-critique first. Ask him to share one thing that went well. (Don’t let him say ‘nothing’—pause and wait him out.) Then, ask him to share one thing that could have been improved.

In my experience, people are hard on themselves and accurately nail their mistakes, but often fail to give themselves enough credit. If they are asked to self-identify issues first (in a ‘safe’ way) they will identify most of their own improvement areas up front, which means the feedback given by you as a leader and from co-workers can mainly serve to build them up and encourage them. This frees the employee up to acknowledge and focus on the few improvement suggestions that may have escaped them.

There are a few requirements for ensuring self-critiquing goes well. The common theme is that employees must feel ‘safe’ to share – meaning you have created an environment where they:

• Trust your motives as a leader--that you are ‘for them’ and have their improvement, goals and career development in mind.
• Trust that the self-critique information will be used for their well-being and not to undermine them with later.
• Know you understand whether they prefer feedback be given individually or in another forum.

There are plenty of opportunities to practice this ‘self-critiquing first’ feedback concept—when presented with your third graders’ report card results, your 16-year olds’ first fender-bender, or when one of your employees’ projects seems to be going south. Simply acknowledge their circumstance, effort or pain, and ask for their insights before supplying yours or inviting anyone else to do so.
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When invitations for self-critiquing are extended first and managed well, employees will likely embrace feedback and their confidence, self-awareness, problem-solving capabilities and trust in you as their leader, should all increase; along with your team’s effectiveness and your organizations’ bottom line results!

Clarifying and improving business processes is a good idea. Reviewing customer and stakeholder input and involving employees in that endeavor is also usually a good idea. Whether fixing a problem, ensuring employees have a good grasp of company values after onboarding, or performing an ‘annual check-up’ to ensure a process still makes sense and works efficiently, process improvement is worth the investment. 

From private airline passenger scenarios to governmental policy roll-outs, we’ve heard a lot recently about process/procedural mishaps and confusion; resulting in public relations, customer service and employee morale issues—and often a loss of profit. Employee and public opinion about what went wrong and how it should be rectified is abundant. It’s clear that it would be much more beneficial for businesses to evaluate, test and adjust their procedures, training and measurements before a problem occurs.

Process improvement can do more than prevent losses. When applied in a balanced fashion and in accordance with company values, it can create incredible savings. Stop for a minute and do the math. Quantify just one potential process improvement in your organization. For instance, if your team was able to reduce manufacturing time for one product by 10%, what is that figure? Or, if your team was able to increase employee retention by just 1-2 employees per year, what is the dollar amount of training and re-recruitment savings?

Since poor processes can yield drastic negative consequences and excellent processes can yield incredible savings, what’s preventing leaders from embarking on process improvement efforts? 
First, tyranny of the urgent often prevails. Leaders barely have time to resolve problems that are apparent, let alone problems that are discreet, complex or span various departments. They surmise that the potential future gain of process improvement is not worth the immediate diversion of resources. Hence, managers apply resources toward certainties rather than potential savings. The solution? Do the math and encourage yourself and other leaders to clarify or improve at least one process.

Second, due to time constraints, leaders often try to fix processes by themselves--reviewing data, observing and assessing what might need to change, and perhaps asking a few questions of employees; but more or less making the improvements in a vacuum. Yet, it’s nearly impossible for one individual to know the full body of information and experiences you’d get if you asked employees, customers and other stakeholders. Without gathering this information, it may mean the process is being evaluated based upon incomplete or imbalanced information. Most importantly, it is the very act of involving employees that makes them more likely to support the solution and implementation—which in turn increases their motivation and sense of purpose at work. Hence, the wisdom of seeking employee/customer input and perspectives.

Resist the temptation to resolve the process problem on your own. By involving your team in process improvement, you can work around your blind spots, steer clear of the infamous iceberg of ignorance, improve the process, and even build employee trust, customer satisfaction and profits while you’re at it.
 
Even though it is beneficial to involve employees in process improvement, it can be more complicated than you’d imagine. It likely involves risk of some sort—whether the risk is of a safety, financial, legal or business nature. Therefore, it calls for some evaluation in advance. For smaller, low-risk processes and industries, getting input from employees and making small changes ‘just to see how they work’ might be warranted.

For larger-scale efforts or areas with complex procedures where a process change could be risky or disruptive for a large portion of the organization; more planning and assistance may be necessary-- including securing appropriate approvals and possibly enlisting the help of a neutral party, industrial engineering intern or impartial, trained facilitator. This frees you up to concentrate on the content and allows you to engage in the process alongside your team.
 
Here are some basic process improvement steps* for larger scale efforts:
1.    Select a process to tackle. Ideally, it would be one that employees or customers have voiced concerns about in the recent past, and that you have direct authority to change. 
2.    Get management buy-in, union approvals and any other necessary agreements. Ensure you understand your budget and any constraints.
3.     Select the employees/stakeholders needed and the decision-making methodology you’ll use. Attendees will need to feel safe to contribute/critique the process, and be assured that no negative repercussions will occur from sharing their honest opinions.
4.    Design the meeting or workshop. Draft the agenda. Collect necessary data and ensure attendees can review it before the workshop. Consider asking an internal or external facilitator for assistance in designing and facilitating the workshop.
5.    Conduct the workshop.

• With team input, map out the selected process, as it currently stands, in a simple manner. 
• Utilizing a consistent format, allow attendees to point out redundancies, strengths and improvement areas.
• Taking these factors into consideration and with continued team input, map out the improved process. 
• Set performance measurements and create an action plan. Remember that efficiency and financial indicators aren’t the only yardsticks and can sometimes backfire as measurements if not balanced with employee and customer relationship indicators. Likewise, beware of metrics that may drive unwanted behavior. For example, the Wells Fargo metric regarding opening new accounts showed that many new accounts were being opened, but obviously the organization was not getting the overall results it desired!
• Gather employee feedback for use in designing the next workshop.  

6.      Implement the action plan.
7.      Review and record performance measurements. See how much improvement was achieved and ensure all company values are still being honored. Check and adjust the new process as needed.
8.     Be sure to celebrate with your team. Taking the time to involve employees in improving processes is hard work, but it’s worth it!

* Since each organization is unique, these steps should be considered basic suggestions only and should not be construed as tailored advice given for a specific organization.

​In a recent Harvard Business Review article, Michael Schrage says, “Serious leaders understand that, both by design and default, they’re always leading by example.”
 
Whether you’re a parent, teacher, coach or business manager, it seems to be a self-evident, yet daunting, leadership truth. We’re leading by example even when we’re not consciously aware of it.
 
Self-awareness is key to good leadership. On the other hand, being unaware of how we come across as leaders or unintentionally operating against our own professed values can be ineffective or even damaging. That’s why most leadership development courses spend considerable time up-front ensuring leaders are aware of their style, and the style they exhibit when placed under stress. As leaders, we understand the principle of working on ourselves first. Yet, in a moment of clarity, most of us would grudgingly admit that we sometimes try to remove specks (small leadership flaws) from our fellow leaders’ eyes when we may have proverbial logs (large leadership flaws) in our own eyes. I’m guilty as charged.

So, what have we established? Self-awareness is critical to leadership success and yet, as leaders, we have blind spots—areas where we may lack self-awareness. Thankfully, self-awareness is a skill which we can develop over time. One word of warning: Practicing and increasing self-awareness is not for the faint-hearted. It means hearing things about ourselves that we’d rather not hear. It means having our style, pet projects, and philosophies critiqued. It means being vulnerable and having other people realize that we’re not infallible—all while needing to exhibit the level of self-confidence that it takes to be a strong leader. But, being self-aware is worth it—both at home and at work.

How can we become more self-aware? I’ve found the following ideas helpful in my journey and offer them to you.

Nine Ways to Build Self-Awareness:

1. Admit you’re not as self-aware as you think you are. Even if you are a warm, inviting person, over time—with promotions or growing expertise in your field, some information filters have likely set in—either from you or from others. You can and should assume you are no longer being made aware of all you need to know about how your leadership style and actions are perceived by the masses.  
2. Invite sharing from all levels of your organization and don’t expect unsolicited feedback until you’ve asked for feedback and have successfully received it with grace for a while. Remember that it takes courage for people to share candid feedback with a leader—especially if that leader is at a high level in the organization.
3. Take a personality inventory such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and review the interpretive report. Or, dust off and review one you took previously. It can be enlightening. 
4. Invite a coach to work with you and observe the corporate climate around you and how your leadership style is received. Better yet, get a network of people who will do this for you—perhaps even confidentially on occasional surveys. Specifically ask: ‘Regarding ______ (insert the areas where you profess a certain leadership style or attribute), are there times where what I say I believe doesn’t match my actions?’
5. Put your leadership philosophies, pet projects and plans to the test regularly. If you consistently receive ‘everything is perfect’ answers or metrics, ask more specific follow-up questions until you are satisfied. Rarely is perfection the case 100% of the time. Receive the gift of feedback with class.
6. Take actions to stay humble. Have a teenager randomly comment on your fashion choices, colloquiums and computer skills. Go to a mixer where no one knows you. Be thankful for the little things. Volunteer often and ensure you’re placing yourself into circumstances where you’re around people and serving people different than yourself. 
7. Read Dilbert daily. Enough said.
8. Realize that some people who report to you will truly tell you only what you want to hear. If you subscribe to a particular leadership philosophy, find a measureable way to ensure it is sincerely being demonstrated throughout your company or department. Hire people who fit that culture.
9. Pick worthy leadership mentors and articles and read often and widely about good leadership.

With a little bit of practice and focus, we can increase our self-awareness and become stronger leaders!

Do you have any self-awareness tips to share?

I recently bought a new board game to use during our family vacation. It had good ratings, displayed a Mensa seal, and boasted rich imagery and an intriguing name--Forbidden Island (Gamewright ®). But, when I sprung it on my adult children, they were less than enthused. Although our family plays board games occasionally— they certainly aren’t board game fanatics. I would have to keep things exciting. I read the description out loud: “…capture four sacred treasures from the ruins of this perilous paradise and escape by helicopter to win—if the island sinks before you complete your tasks, the mission ends in defeat!” So far, so good. The family was with me. Playing time: 30 minutes—check. But then I announced: “…the latest creation by cooperative game master, Matt Leacock.” That’s right… it was a cooperative board game.

Wikipedia lays out the definition: “In a cooperative board game, players work together in order to achieve a goal, either winning or losing as a group. As the name suggests, cooperative games stress cooperation over competition...”
 
Competition had been expected, but cooperation? My kids’ eyebrows rose and they blurted out their suspicion: “Is this one of your leadership development/'team-buildy' things?” Surprisingly, although I’ve been known to try a few team building exercises out on the family, this wasn’t a premeditated cooperative plot.
 
We carried on. We formed the Island with the tiles, placed the treasures on the board, and set the water level marker. We distributed ‘adventurer’ cards which gave each of us a special power that only we could perform. The game began. We could only move our pawn to an adjacent tile but never diagonally. We had card hand-limit restrictions. As the flood cards ‘sunk’ certain tiles, our movements became more restricted and we were forced to work together if we wanted to ‘shore up’ (i.e. ‘unflood’) a tile, keep the water level from rising, collect the treasures and escape the island. We played as a team. We still had tension, excitement and fun, but we also learned to work together.
 
Of course, a few of the lessons we learned apply to other teams as well:     

1. To succeed, our team had to work together toward a common, clearly-stated goal.
2. We had to compete against the common obstacle, rather than against each other, or our team would sink.
3. We had to recognize that every team member had special skills and limitations. We offered help to our teammates when they needed it, and asked for help when we needed it.  
4. To keep each other safe and effective, we had to look ahead. We reminded each other of previous lessons learned, potential pitfalls, and best practices.
5. We offered lots of encouragement to each other along the way!

As simple as these ideas appear, when we had to apply them, it was much harder. That’s because, as a society, competition seems to come more naturally and is modeled more frequently, than cooperation. In a sense, the game helped us practice and develop the ‘muscle memories’ for cooperation and collaboration.

For teams, stressing cooperation over competition is a refreshing and smart business tactic. But, if we want our team (or family) to get better at collaboration, we must allow time for practice and be intentional about it. Many team building exercises and cooperative games take only ½ hour, so why not plan time for your team to practice  creative thinking, communication, problem-solving and collaboration more often until it becomes second nature and part of their collective ‘muscle memory’? Sprinkle short team building exercises throughout each quarter, rather than reserving them for retreats. Spend a little bit of time, google team building exercises, try them out on your friends or family and go for it. You might get a few groans from your team at first, but they’ll eventually appreciate it and be stronger for it.
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Don’t underestimate the power of practicing collaboration. Let the cooperative games and team building exercises begin!

Many of us take vitamin supplements to provide certain health benefits and to ensure we won’t become deficient if we don’t get those vitamins naturally from our daily diet. Vitamin P, more correctly called flavonoids, is found in a number of foods and herbs, ranging from red peppers to tea. It fights the effects of oxidation and free radicals in the body, which are associated with aging, cellular damage, and certain conditions like cancer. 

Obviously we can’t intervene with an employees’ actual vitamin intake, but what about the concept of ‘work vitamins’? Are there emotional nutrients that employees should get at work in order to boost their productivity and prevent burnout, cynicism and other serious workplace ‘diseases’? Are they getting enough nutrients now, or do we need to provide supplements?

Let’s say that, in the workplace, Vitamin P stands for Positive Feedback. We know that simple things like saying ‘thank you’, giving praise for a job well done; or pausing occasionally to celebrate accomplishments, important milestones, or finished projects—give employees a morale boost. But, as leaders, we get so busy with our urgent activities, emails, required training and ‘musts’, that it is hard to keep up with what we consider to be the ‘nice-to-have’s’ like giving positive feedback.  Are your employees getting enough Vitamin P? Considering your busy schedule and the rise of criticism in society, the chances are slim. In fact, your employees may even be starved for positive feedback.
 
Our society seems to have gravitated toward criticism rather than praise as a norm. We are all professional critics now—‘Yelp’ food critics after a restaurant meal, ‘Rotten Tomato’ movie critics after watching a flick, and sometimes armchair political critics at night. These critiques are often more heavily weighted with negative, rather than positive, comments.  Even though political discussions are wisely and appropriately avoided at work, the tendency toward criticism and some of the brash interaction styles and techniques may be bleeding over into the workplace more than we realize. Where has all the positive feedback gone?  We don’t often see it in the media we consume and we may see it less and less in the workplace unless we make an intentional, concerted effort to reverse that trend. We may be unintentionally critiquing our employees quite a bit more often than giving them positive feedback.
  
It’s not surprising that we’re simultaneously experiencing burnout in the workplace.  A Wall Street Journal article says, “Burnout begins when a worker feels overwhelmed for a sustained period of time, then apathetic and ultimately numb.”  It also says, “Everyone’s job is now an extreme job”, and cites ‘steep turnover and higher health costs.’ Mini-sabbaticals are one solution offered, but there are likely simpler solutions. Most of us feel better about our jobs when we receive regular encouragement, so we inherently understand that giving employees positive feedback is a ‘must-have’ rather than a ‘nice-to-have’. If we’re too busy to compliment, encourage and help our employees find purpose in their jobs, we’ll be spending ten-fold that time dealing with stress complaints and absenteeism, or recruiting and training new employees to take their place.
 
Do you give enough positive feedback to your employees and to your family members? Get some statistics of your own.  Keep a tally-sheet for one day. Place one tally mark next to a person’s name each time you praise them or give them positive feedback. You may only place a tally mark if the feedback is sincere, is the type of praise that person prefers (public or private?) and is not followed by a criticism.  One manager I know puts praise reminders in his phone. That may seem forced, but we use reminders for everything else—why not for positive feedback? The main point is to develop a method to ensure you’re celebrating employee accomplishments and coaching them for positive performance as well as improvement areas.
  
I dare you to heap the praise and positive feedback upon your employees. You simply can’t give too much. As long as it is true and real, delivered in a way that each employee prefers, and efforts are made to distribute feedback to each team member over time, it’s hard to go wrong. Supplement your employees with enough Vitamin P to ensure you have a healthy, happy, productive team.
 
Do you give and receive enough positive feedback in the workplace? Let’s hear your comments.